Light speed puts Clarke alongside the stars

If Jacin Sinclair never plays first grade again, South Sydney can at least thank him for the presence of the game's fastest player in their backline.

Joven Clarke, who was last year ranked the No 1 sprinter in Australia under the age of 20, may have been on the plane to Manchester this week for the Commonwealth Games if he wasn't lining up against St George Illawarra on Saturday at Aussie Stadium.

But ever since his Philippines-born mother, Remy, took him down to play for Canley Vale under-6s, Clarke's first love has been rugby league, and his hero Sinclair, himself a former schoolboy athletic champion.

"As much as I love athletics my heart and soul as a kid was always to play first-grade football," Clarke, who also holds a black belt in karate, said yesterday.

"I used to watch all of these great players and think 'I want to be like you and play with you one day', and now all of a sudden I am. Guys like Adam Muir, I used to praise him and now I'm playing alongside him, and Jacin Sinclair - I used to love him.");document.write("

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"I've got all of these videos at home of him playing, and when I came to Souths and he spoke to me the first time, it was like, 'Oh my God!'."

At just 73kg, Clarke is the lightest player in the NRL, but for sheer pace no-one else comes close. His personal best of 10.49s for 100m is the sixth quickest in Australia in the past 12 months.

Matt Shirvington clocked 10.31s to win the national title three months ago.

Rabbitohs sprint coach Phil Blake believes the 19-year-old Parramatta junior may be the fastest player of the modern era and said he was quicker than his former Warriors teammate Lee Oudenryn, who beat Great Britain winger Martin Offiah in a 100m sprint during the Lions 1992 tour of Australia.

"Anyone who runs sub-11s in rugby league is very quick," Blake said.

"[Former Rooster and Eels winger] Shane Whereat was a 10.5s to 10.6s man, but Joven does 10.49s, so he's only three or four yards behind the top athletes who are running 10.2s and 10.3s.

"He's a special talent and he had a fantastic first-grade debut last weekend against Wests Tigers. He made little half-chances into full chances, set up a try in the first half, scored a try in the second half that no-one else would have scored and that was only because of his speed."

Yet Clarke shies away from talk about his athletic prowess, wanting to be recognised for his footballing talent instead.

A product of Westfield Sports High, he played in the same side as Pat Richards, Danny Sullivan and 2003 Souths recruit Mark Minichiello and was an Australian schoolboys teammate of Luke Dorn, Anthony Quinn, Joel Monaghan and Steve Irwin in 2000.

"I don't want to boast about my speed," he said. "It's a gift I've got, I guess, and I just use it to the best of my ability."